In markup languages, Schematron is a rule-based validation language for making assertions about the presence or absence of patterns in XML trees. It is a structural schema language expressed in XML using a small number of elements and XPath.

In a typical implementation, the Schematron schema XML is processed into normal XSLT code for deployment anywhere that XSLT can be used.

Schematron is capable of expressing constraints in ways that other XML schema languages like XML Schema and DTD cannot. For example, it can require that the content of an element be controlled by one of its siblings. Or it can request or require that the root element, regardless of what element that is, must have specific attributes. Schematron can also specify required relationships between multiple XML files.

Contents

Constraints are specified in Schematron using an XPath-based language that can be deployed as XSLT code, making it practical for applications such as the following:

Adjunct to Structural Validation

By testing for co-occurrence constraints, non-regular constraints, and inter-document constraints, Schematron can extend the validations that can be expressed in languages such as DTDs, RELAX NG or XML Schema.[1]

Lightweight Business Rules Engine

Schematron is not a comprehensive, Rete rules engine, but it can be used to express rules about complex structures with an XML document.

XML Editor Syntax Highlighting Rules

Some XML editors use Schematron rules to conditionally highlight XML files for errors. Not all XML editors support Schematron.

Schematron rules can be created using a standard XML editor or XForms application. The following is a sample schema:

<schemaxmlns="http://purl.oclc.org/dsdl/schematron"><pattern><title>Date rules</title><rulecontext="Contract"><asserttest="ContractDate &lt; current-date()">ContractDate should be
in the past because future contracts are not allowed.</assert></rule></pattern></schema>

This rule checks to make sure that the ContractDate XML element has a date that is before the current date. If this rule fails the validation will fail and an error message which is the body of the assert element will be returned to the user.

Schematron schemas are suitable for use in XML Pipelines, thereby allowing workflow process designers to build and maintain rules using XML manipulation tools. The W3C's XProc pipelining language, for example, has native support for Schematron schema processing through its "validate-with-schematron" step.[3]

Since Schematron schemas can be transformed into XSLT stylesheets, these can themselves be used in XML Pipelines which support XSLT transformation. An Apache Ant task can be used to convert Schematron rules into XSLT files.

There exists also native Schematron implementation, like the Java implementation from Innovimax/INRIA, QuiXSchematron, that also do streaming.